Raising the Bar

Why did Albertson's sell bags of Halloween candy for $1 a bag?  And I'm talking the good stuff, too?  Why did I buy so many bags of it?  Why did I spend four straight days eating it?  Now the questions stop.  I KNOW why I gained four pounds in five days.  I skipped two Weight Watcher meetings because I didn't want to go and show a weight gain.  I don't want to talk about dieting if my weight is up. 

So. . . when I figured the weight was off (again), I went to the meeting this morning.  Not only did I lose (again) the four pounds, but I was down another two pounds from that!  Boy, was I full of myself.  In WW lingo, I relapsed but I didn't collapse.   I'm down 17 pounds since Jeannie and I joined on October 24.  And 41 (!!!!) pounds since last winter.  I finally got my courage up and threw away the clothes I wore last winter.  This is to signal to my subconscious mind that I'm not going to ever need those clothes again.  But after so many years of losing and gaining, losing and gaining, do I really believe it?  Dr. Phil, that big know-it-all, says the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior (and that can be a pretty grim thought if you have a somewhat checkered past),  BUT (and here is the saving grace) we can create a new past for ourselves.  So that's what I'm doing -- creating a new past.

Yay me.

And what is my reward for losing 17 pounds, you may ask???  I lost a point!  That's right.  Another one.  In the WW plan, each food has a points value.  The more weight you lose, the fewer points you get to eat.  I started at 23 points, lost some weight and went down to 22 points, now I have 21 measly (sp?) points per day.  Folks, we're not talking a lot of food here.  The lowest points WW will go to is 18.  You are allowed 35 extra points per week to use whenever you want, but obviously the more points I consume, the slower the weight loss will be, so I try not to use too many of them.

A side issue, and another question:  why is it that something with a bow on it is so much more appealing than the same item without?  Our leader had little "presents" for us:  a bottle of Arrowhead water with a bit of blue ribbon and 1 point bags of microwave popcorn dressed up with those traditional stick-on bows you find everywhere this time of year.  Why was it so fun to get these things?  I have the same microwave popcorn in the pantry, but without the bow they're not as special.  And while we're at it, why is it so fun to get a gold star with the number 5 printed on it when we lose another 5 pounds?  I could go buy a package of gold stars, but they wouldn't be any fun.  You can't really award yourself  a gold star.  Somebody else has to give you one, and it has to mean something.  I LOVE my gold stars.  I have three now and I have stuck them on the little book mark we get on the first day we join WW.  I envision my book mark COVERED in gold stars.  Ah, that will be the day.  (That will be the day I get to start maintenance and live this way for the rest of my life.  I ask you, what kind of reward will that be?  A lifetime of hunger?  Or will I get used to fewer and fewer points and think, "How did I ever STUFF myself with 23 whole points??  Yuck!)

Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.